Target Center owner plans link to U.S. 278 signal

The Target Center is lining up to get direct access to U.S. 278 at a signalized intersection.

The project, to be contracted and funded by Target Center owner Stafford Properties Inc., would build an access road to join the highway.

The road would connect at the existing signalized intersection now serving the Best Buy Center/Home Depot access road on the highway’s north side.

It will mean “no more crazy U-turns,” said Will Euart, director of leasing and development of Stafford Properties. Now westbound motorists sometimes make U-turns at the signal to backtrack to the frontage road intersection by Hilton Head Automotive.

“We are in for approval from S.C. DOT right now on that,” Euart said Monday. “They had previously approved us back in 2006 (when Stafford built the Best Buy Center), so we don’t see any issues with it. We expect to begin that work sometime in March and have the full intersection open by June 1.”

The project is a condition of Stafford’s new Target Center lease with Dick’s Sporting Goods, and the Target department store also had renewed interest in the project.

The signal connection was scuttled in 2006 when neighboring property owners declined to participate in funding.

Colin Kinton, Beaufort County transportation and traffic engineer, said the county is working with Stafford’s engineers on designing the intersection’s fourth leg. He said it “will improve access significantly to the Target shopping center with signalized access. The developer will be funding the connection to U.S. 278 and modifications to the existing traffic signal.”